Carrie Olivia Adams : On Black Ocean at 15 Years

 

 

 

 

 

It has been 15 years since Black Ocean began publishing books, and the small press poetry scene has grown and changed dramatically since that time. It’s been incredible to see such an explosion that has created space for so many different voices, perspectives, styles, and approaches. And both poetry-writers and poetry-readers have benefited from this wealth of avenues for publication and the availability of a broad variety of books and chapbooks.

And now, as we look ahead to our next 15 years in publishing, the challenge is two-fold: how do we make the press sustainable in the long term? And how do we continue to evolve with the poetry scene while maintaining some consistent and recognizable idea of what a Black Ocean book is?

One of the strengths of Black Ocean is that it’s always been a labor of love. The press has been volunteer-led by co-founder Janaka Stucky and myself, and while that has meant that each project has been a passion project, and each book and author and translator has had our true commitment and confidence, it has also meant that we’re constantly trying to shoehorn the business of publishing into the rest of our workaday and family lives. In the last few years, we’ve been looking to try to find a way to ensure that Black Ocean could thrive into the future and wouldn’t be entirely reliant on the two of us (who may be missing a little of the energy of our entrepreneurial youth).

In the last year, Janaka has been taking the lead on putting together a long-term plan for Black Ocean that would allow us to maintain our creative vision while providing for the future of the press. Consequently, we’re now entering a partnership with west coast publisher Not a Cult, to form a new publishing group, called Chapter House. Chapter House will contain several projects moving forward, including a forthcoming speculative fiction label. And, as part of this shift, we’ve already moved our catalog into wider distribution through Consortium, something our current authors are already benefiting from. And, by being able to share some back-office services and resources as a part of a collective, we’re confident in the viability of Black Ocean’s future as a creative enterprise that continues to grow beyond what we ever could have imagined decades ago.

At the same time, we’re trying to do all that we can to strengthen Black Ocean’s list and to ensure that it’s engaging with the contemporary poetry conversation and is representative of the spectrum of lyrical voices writing today. Black Ocean has always had a distinct and recognizable aesthetic, from the design of our books to the poetry within their pages. But, we’ve also never wanted to be too easy to pin down. One of the greatest joys as an editor is discovery—and our commitment to new voices has never wavered.

To continue to keep that commitment we’ve been expanding our avenues for finding new writers and for new writers to discover Black Ocean as a potential home for their work. We’ve been incredibly excited that Lillian-Yvonne Bertram has joined us this year as an editor-at-large and has been not only helping to scout new work but to serve as a close consultant on our editorial decisions. And, at the same, we’ve decided to spread out our open submissions across the year and have particular submission periods that are attentive to the variety and diversity of work that we seek, including translations, first books, and historically underrepresented writers.

I feel like these are the perennial questions faced by any publisher who has been lucky enough to be around for this long—how do we stay true to the reasons why readers seek our books while also recognizing that poetry and art continue to shift (which is why we love it so)? I am proud of the ways that Black Ocean continues to evolve, and I think there’s going to be a lot to look forward to from us in the future.

 

 

 

 

Carrie Olivia Adams lives in Chicago where she is the Promotions and Marketing Communications Director for the University of Chicago Press and the poetry editor for Black Ocean. Her books include Be the thing of memory, Operating Theater, Forty-One Jane Doe’s, and Intervening Absence in addition to the chapbooks Proficiency Badges, Grapple, Overture in the Key of F, and A Useless Window. When she’s not making poems, she’s making biscuits.

Carrie Olivia Adams, Cynthia Cruz, Wendy McGrath, Niina Pollari + Franklin Bruno: virtual reading series #13

a series of video recordings of contemporary poets reading from their work, prompted by the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent cancellations, shut-downs and isolations; a reading series you can enjoy in the safety of your own protected space,

Carrie Olivia Adams : “from Borderland”

Carrie Olivia Adams lives in Chicago with her husband and two cats. She is the Promotions and Marketing Communications Director for the University of Chicago Press and the poetry editor for Black Ocean. Her books include Operating Theater, Forty-One Jane Doe’s, and Intervening Absence as well as To be a thing of memory (forthcoming from Tolsun Books in 2021) in addition to the chapbooks Proficiency Badges (forthcoming from Meekling Press), Grapple, Overture in the Key of F, and A Useless Window. When she’s not making poems, she’s making biscuits.

Cynthia Cruz : “In the Porcelain Room,” “In the Porcelain Room,” from Guidebooks for the Dead

Cynthia Cruz is the author of six collections of poetry: Ruin (Alice James Books, 2006), The Glimmering Room (Four Way Books, 2012), Wunderkammer (Four Way Books, 2014), How the End Begins (Four Way Books, 2016), Dregs (Four Way Books, 2018) and Guidebooks for the Dead (Four Way Books, 2020). A collection of critical essays, Disquieting: Essays on Silence, was published by Book*hug in 2019.  Her second collection, The Melancholia of Class, is forthcoming from Repeater Books in 2021. A novella, Steady Diet of Nothing, is forthcoming from Four Way Books. Cruz's background is in German literature and philosophy. She regularly publishes essays and art writing in The Brooklyn Rail and Degree Critical. Cruz is the Kowald Visiting Writer in Poetry in the MFA Program in Creative Writing at the City College of New York. Cruz for Fall 2019/Spring 2020. Cruz also teaches at Sarah Lawrence College and in the Columbia University Graduate Writing Department.

Wendy McGrath : “Lights” and “The Drive-in,” from A Revision of Forward (NeWest 2015)

Wendy McGrath’s most recent novel Broke City (NeWest Press) is the final book in her Santa Rosa Trilogy. Previous novels in the series are Santa Rosa and North East. Her most recent book of poetry, A Revision of Forward (NeWest Press) was released in Fall 2015. McGrath works in multiple genres--Before We Knew is her latest poetry/music collaboration with musician/producer Sascha Liebrand. She has also completed a collaborative manuscript of poems inspired by the photography of Danny Miles, drummer for July Talk and Tongue Helmet. Her poetry, fiction, and non-fiction has been widely published. 

Niina Pollari : “Self Love is Important,” from Dead Horse

Niina Pollari is the author of Dead Horse (Birds, LLC 2015) and the translator, from the Finnish, of Tytti Heikkinen's The Warmth of the Taxidermied Animal (Action Books 2013). Her latest is the split chapbook Total Mood Killer, written with merritt k and out from Tiger Bee Press in 2018. She lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Franklin Bruno : “Villanelle”; “Lub-Dup”

Franklin Bruno is a writer and musician based in Jackson Heights, Queens. His poetry collection is The Accordion Repertoire (Edge Books).